Somehow anons find the “Georgia incident” an opportunity to vent in my ask box about Sam and Cait and I feel the need to say something about that.

No, I don’t either hate nor Sam. And I won’t post or read anything hateful about them. I really, really like them. I think they’re both adorable, sweet, generous and kind people.

I also think they’re behaving not very wisely all the time and right now I roll my eyes at them.

That is not hate. I’m jus a bit annoyed about their dishonesty and aobut their selfish behavior towards two other people. And before the next anon comes to my ask to tell me “they don’t owe you anyhting”. No, they don’t. But I don’t either. I can criticize them as much as I feel inclined to. If I see someone behave stupidly or badly, I can say so. That might not change their behavior, but it makes me feel better to have said what I think.

I’m convinced that Sam is in a relationship with Mackenzie and that Cait is in a relationship with Tony. So far so good. What I don’t understand is their disrespectful behavior towards their partners. And I’m NOT talking about being so affectionate with each other. That’s IMO just how they are. They really like each other very much, they have a lot of sexual chemistry and they both like to flirt. They’re actors and actors are different from other people. They have less boundaries. I fully understand it, because I’m an opera singer and I’ve seen it in theatre all the time. What is “normal” for other people doesn’t apply for actors.

So, I’m absolutely fine with how Sam and Cait are with each other. In fact I love it, I’m grateful that we’re blessed with a couple of leads, who are so incredibly close to each other. That’s rare and a blessing for the show. And I love to watch it, it warms my heart, it genuinely touches me and no, I don’t think it is for business or “acted”. These two adore the hell out of each other and when in each other’s company they glow from within.

That doesn’t mean they have to be in a romantic relationship though. Sad but true. Whatever their reasons, they’re obviously not. They have said so and they clearly have other partners in their life. It’s just idiotic to search for reasons why Sam should be in Columbus, Georgia on the day of Mackenzie’s brother’s wedding. There is no other reason, it is the writing on the wall and it is time for me to admit to it.

BUT why Sam thinks it is OK to throw his girlfriend under the bus again and again is beyond me. Why he thinks any woman should be treated as a dirty, little secret, not worth being even in a picture with him once is a miracle to me. Shoved aside at the Scottish BAFTA, treated as if she was someone to be ashamed about. At the same time he treats Cait as a queen, builds a shrine on his IG and allows the ugly side of the fandom to be all over Mackenzie. Is it surprising, that she gets treated as if she was worthless when he himself sets the example? Yes, he stood up once when it got really out of hand, but how about saying: “This woman means something to me. She’s my girlfriend, stay away from her.”? That is too much loss of privacy? But posting a picture of Georgia or of North Carolina to show he’s in her vicinity isn’t?

Same goes for Cait. She’s said to be with Tony for three years. How can she be so disrespectful and dragg him all over the world and then treat him like a part of the furniture. Not worthy to be in pictures with her, not worthy to be introduced as her partner. Allowing the discussion about him being her PA going on. What does that say about her self image? What does it say about Tony? She allows the world to see him as a complete doormat instead of someone she is proud to have at her side.

This is what I criticize. And before someone says it: No, I don’t think Sam and Cait realize, that it is what they’re doing. I think they’re kindhearted and nice and they would not intentionally hurt people they love. I do think they’re both very new to fame though and trying to be as fiercely protective of their privacy as they can. Maybe they even talked about how they would achieve that and made a plan. But the plan is bad. They’re making a huge mistake here and I wish someone would take them by the hand and tell them, that instead of protecting their privacy, they’re behaving like assholes.

Protecting their privacy is actually very easy. Million stars have done it before and are doing it now. It doesn’t mean you have to announce your first date with someone and then display your affection on SM. After three years and almost one year though, it should at least be official. Tell the world the name of your SO and then refuse to talk about it. Easy and has been done a zillion times before. Does Merly Streep talk about her her private life? No. But do we know her husband? Of course we do, he’s not hidden away. Is David Berry living his private life on SM when he posts a pic of him and his wife from time to time? Or of him and his son? No, he isn’t. But he is proud of his family and says so. That’s how you do it. Sam and Cait should take a look and do the same.

FILM (Bellamy Blake x Reader)

Request:Bellamy and reader request-where bellamy is a celebrity and reader is a soldier in the army and is asked to star in a film with him based on her experiences. They hate eachother at first but start to fall for eachother after their close time together. After the film ends she goes back into the army but gets injured after saving lincoln-her best friend- and bellamy takes care of her at his place and admits how they feel. -really long pls i love this concept x

Usually you get along with people. You’re an outgoing, laid back, strong-willed woman who sees what she wants and goes and gets it. You served a long amount of year in the United States Army and if you wanted to, you could write millions of pages of your detailed experiences being a soldier.

You meet new people all the time, always smiling and shaking hands while engaging in small talk about your various accomplishments as a woman in a position of power. So yeah, you get along with people. Usually.

So, @itza322 and I went to Chris’ book event in Houston. What a gem. I’ve been to a few of his signings, but never got to see him do anything like this. I twas so worth the six hour drive. Lol He was sweet and funny and thankfully, there weren’t any awkward Klaine questions. Here’s what we can remember from last night!! See Maritza’s pictures here!

Under a read more because this got long. I transcribed his answers from my audio, so they are are exact quotes. Enjoy!

The greatest break in my life was when I met Don Gummer, there’s no question in my mind about that. I think that a relationship will be succesful when it is based on unconditional love. After all these years Don and I still love each other as much as we did in the beginning. The trick is to keep listening to each other. You have to listen to each others frustrations, wishes, desires and anticipate and learn from each other. It sure isn’t easy being married to an actress. But if you give each other space you also get closeness. And time is still the best thing we can give each other nowadays. Even I need to take a deep breath sometimes, pause. Like a farmer, who doesn’t plant his field for a year. And in these breaks I want my husband to be around me all of the time. In the morning. In the afternoon. In the evenings and during the night. He is a man of few words. I do all the babbling. He listens and recieves. And he loves me as I am: hyperactive and eager, even at this age. He is an artist, introverted and introspective. I’m a fake artist, a mask. He is a sculptor of matter, I’m one of expressions. We’re an odd couple, but in our own way perfect. The man that I love is so completely a part of my body, he’s related, he’s home, he’s me, he’s everything. Yeah.. and I love his forearms. But I really can’t go into everything. Just the shape of his forearms.. so beautiful! You have to try to find the same openmindedness as when you were first engadged: take time, evenings, short holidays and spend them together. As an actor I don’t risk getting into a rut in my relationship, but we have the opposite risk: a couple also needs security. My husband and I often do short holidays abroad, as lovers. Our relationship has a good foundation: our love. I need it so bad, I could not live without love. And we just fit together. We share common interests, politics too. We read a lot, but we accept each other’s opinions, if the other doesn’t like the same. I don’t play the big star at home, sometimes I step back and quit making movies. So we spend a lot of time together and we can go on vacations. He’s very happy about that. I think we have a good marriage. and weirdly, we do seem to agree on most of the big things, like money and the kids and sex, which is what I’m told a lot of people fight about. we seem to be on the same page on those things. He’s wonderful, He’s like me, I mean, he’s very private. And he never says anything he doesn’t mean. He’s warm, strong, gentle, funny, kind, understanding, very creative. I couldn’t live with someone who wasn’t creative. The marriage is the best thing that has happened to me - no, not the marriage - Don.

I love Mike and I love the Half Measures speech (and I’ve memorized it and say it to my dog all the time) but there’s so much about Mike’s character packed in there that we have to talk about it.

As we all know, Mike uses a personal story to give Walt some advice he doesn’t want to hear: Jesse is trouble and there’s only one way to deal with trouble. But the speech is much more about Mike than it is about Walt and Jesse.

The greatest break in my life was when I met Don Gummer, there’s no question in my mind about that. I think that a relationship will be succesful when it is based on unconditional love. After all these years Don and I still love each other as much as we did in the beginning. The trick is to keep listening to each other. You have to listen to each others frustrations, wishes, desires and anticipate and learn from each other. It sure isn’t easy being married to an actress. But if you give each other space you also get closeness. And time is still the best thing we can give each other nowadays. Even I need to take a deep breath sometimes, pause. Like a farmer, who doesn’t plant his field for a year. And in these breaks I want my husband to be around me all of the time. In the morning. In the afternoon. In the evenings and during the night. He is a man of few words. I do all the babbling. He listens and recieves. And he loves me as I am: hyperactive and eager, even at this age. He is an artist, introverted and introspective. I’m a fake artist, a mask. He is a sculptor of matter, I’m one of expressions. We’re an odd couple, but in our own way perfect.

The man that I love is so completely a part of my body, he’s related, he’s home, he’s me, he’s everything. Yeah.. and I love his forearms. But I really can’t go into everything. Just the shape of his forearms.. so beautiful! You have to try to find the same openmindedness as when you were first engadged: take time, evenings, short holidays and spend them together. As an actor I don’t risk getting into a rut in my relationship, but we have the opposite risk: a couple also needs security. My husband and I often do short holidays abroad, as lovers. Our relationship has a good foundation: our love. I need it so bad, I could not live without love. And we just fit together. We share common interests, politics too. We read a lot, but we accept each other’s opinions, if the other doesn’t like the same. I don’t play the big star at home, sometimes I step back and quit making movies. So we spend a lot of time together and we can go on vacations. He’s very happy about that. I think we have a good marriage. and weirdly, we do seem to agree on most of the big things, like money and the kids and sex, which is what I’m told a lot of people fight about. we seem to be on the same page on those things.

He’s wonderful, He’s like me, I mean, he’s very private. And he never says anything he doesn’t mean. He’s warm, strong, gentle, funny, kind, understanding, very creative. I couldn’t live with someone who wasn’t creative. The marriage is the best thing that has happened to me - no, not the marriage - Don.

The actress talks Into the Woods, Meryl Streep and the version of Pitch Perfect that never got made

Anna Kendrick might not strike you as a Disney princess: The 29-year-old actress is known as much for tweeting about things like her post-Oscar hangovers as she is for playing feisty outsiders in Pitch Perfect and Happy Christmas. But Kendrick’s Cinderella in the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, out Christmas Day, may surprise you. Kendrick, who was nominated for a Tony for her performance High Society at just 12 years old, will also sing in Pitch Perfect 2 and The Last 5 Years in 2015. TIME talked to her about singing with Meryl Streep, empowered princesses and how she fought for big changes in the Pitch Perfect script.

TIME: Were you a princess person growing up?

Anna Kendrick: I won’t lie to you: I was a big fan of The Little Mermaid. I would do that thing in the pool, where I would flip my hair back because I wanted to be Ariel. But my older brother didn’t want to have an embarrassing little sister, so he insisted that I be exposed to other things. In retrospect, someone two years older than you is not necessarily qualified to say, “I think you’re old enough to watch Pulp Fiction now” because I definitely was not. He was responsible for making me a weird little kid.

Wait, how old were you when you saw Pulp Fiction?

I was about 11? Maybe some kids are emotionally prepared to deal with Pulp Fiction at 11. I was not. And I think that’s made me the person I am today. I’m not complaining, but I did have nightmares for a little while. It’s all character building.

Obviously the princesses in Into the Woods are very different than your traditional princesses. There seems to be a moment right now with Frozen princesses not waiting for their princes to save them…

And Maleficent as well!

Totally. You’re now among the growing list of princesses who can save themselves. What are your thoughts on that evolution?

Into the Woods has existed for years, but if more people being exposed to it through this movie continues that trend of princesses saving themselves and making their own choices, I think that’s fantastic.

I remember my best friend and I when we were running around the playground, she and I would dream about saving boys from falling off cliffs — not the other way around. But we would whisper these fantasies to each other, as though we weren’t supposed to be daydreaming about being the savior. We were supposed to be daydreaming about being saved. So I’m glad that it’s being represented in film because I think that that instinct exists in girls, and it’s nice to acknowledge that that’s normal.

Pitch Perfect did something similar. The first time I saw it, it reminded me a lot of Bring It On, except it was more about the female friendships than Bring It On was. It felt like progress.

Oh wow. Really? I haven’t seen Bring It On in so long. That would be interesting to revisit.

The big kiss at the end of Bring It On matters more than the competition, right? But in Pitch Perfect, the kiss isn’t the last scene. The big reveal at the end is who won the trophy because that matters more than the romance.

It’s so funny you say that. There was this scene that got deleted anyway, but originally the low point in my character’s journey was supposed to be when I found out this guy I vaguely had a crush on at the radio station had a girlfriend. And I was like, “That sucks.” And I fought so hard so that my low point could be that I didn’t think that I was ever going to get any real responsibility at the radio station. I think that we ended up on a mixed version of the two. The scene got deleted anyway, so it’s a moot point. But yeah. I was like, “That’s garbage!” It can’t just be like, “Oh my crush has a girlfriend. I guess I was wrong about everything.”

Right, I thought initially the movie was going to be a competition between the scummy guy and the good guy, but then it wasn’t, which I think is what makes it unique.

They just realized in the edits very quickly that it was all about the girls and spending more time with the girls. So that was an awesome direction that it ended up taking. And I’m excited we’re revisiting that in Pitch Perfect 2.

You moved from Broadway to L.A. for a pilot that didn’t end up airing. Why stay out in California rather than move back to New York?

Man, the quality of life was just sort of irresistible. When you have no money in New York, you’re living in a shoebox and it’s freezing. When you have no money in L.A., you’re living in a slightly larger shoebox, and you can go outside and feel okay about your life for a minute.

Then your big break was in Up in the Air. You’ve said after that movie, you were offered a lot of business suit type roles, and you turned them down because you didn’t want to get pigeonholed. But you will have been in several big movie musicals before the age of 30. Is there a reason you can keep doing those and not feel the same way?

Well, you’re right. It occurred to me that maybe doing four musicals was not a great career plan. After doing Pitch Perfect, I didn’t expect to do other musicals, but then I was offered The Last Five Years andInto the Woods, which are two of the greatest pieces of theater that I can think of. So obviously I wasn’t going to be like, “Oh I’m trying to really stay away from musicals right now, so thanks but I’ll pass.” When certain opportunities come along you throw the rules out the window.

Had you seen Into the Woods as a kid? What was your initial reaction to it?

I grew up watching the Bernadette Peters version on VHS. Like so many people before me, I thought that the end of the first act was the end of the show because those are the stories that we know. And I was kind of unnerved by the second half. It made me feel uncomfortable. But that’s what makes it so compelling and beautiful. The second half of the show is where people have to face the consequences of their actions.

That’s definitely true for many of the characters who do bad things. But I felt like Cinderella didn’t do anything wrong. Did you?

I know what you’re saying. It’s a hard question because she’s such a put-upon character. But her mother asks at the grave, “Do you know what you wish? Are you certain what you wish is what you want?” And this happens all the time in real life, where you think you want one thing, but then it turns out you don’t. Getting into that sort of situation has consequences. She doesn’t act especially selfishly, but she also doesn’t want to make more hard choices about how to deal with the real tragedy that’s going on in her world now.

Why do you think Cinderella keeps running away from the prince so much?

Well, this is a character who’s been abused and neglected her whole life, and she is presented with the trappings of love. She doesn’t know what love is. And then it sort of turns out her instincts are correct and this isn’t love. So it’s difficult to leave the world that she knows even if it’s a bad situation. And then later she’s again incredibly brave to leave a better situation because she says, “I deserve better than this.”

Did you always want the Cinderella part?

As a young girl obviously I was very enamored with the Little Red part. And it was a funny transition in my brain to be told I would be auditioning for Cinderella because I think of myself as, like, a screeching 12-year-old more than I think of myself as a kind-hearted ingenue. But I reminded myself that I’m a grownup, and that’s the deal.

What was it like working with Meryl Streep?

I would say that Meryl shares a certain quality with George Clooney [whom Kendrick starred with in Up In the Air], which is that she understands that actors think of her as one of the most intimidating people you can possibly meet or work with, and still she makes you feel comfortable. She has this incredible talent of making you forget how totally intimidating she is. And it’s no easy feat. I really think that it’s something that they’ve thought about and worked on.

So are you taking notes for when you’re further along in your career and trying to put people at ease because you’re such a big deal?

I don’t think I’m going to have to worry about that.

You have done a bunch of movies that have like these super-intense, young fan bases, between Twilight and Pitch Perfect and now Into the Woods.
Yeah, it’s like the opposite of what I expected my life to ever be because I feel like I’m so bad with kids. When they walk up to me and are excited to talk to me, it’s bewildering. I always feel like I’m going to disappoint them. But I haven’t broken any hearts.
I do think I go into this kind of like beauty pageant contestant voice, which is silly because if they liked Pitch Perfect, they know that’s not my character. I was talking to this little girl, and after they left my friend was like, “Are you running for office?” I was trying to say all the right things. But I’m slowly getting better at it.

You are very active on Twitter and say a lot of things that aren’t necessarily PG. Do you ever worry that some angry parent is going to complain?

I know. I guess that was my concern when I first started on Twitter, but I find that the weirder I go, the happier I am, and the happier my followers are. When I think of a silly thing to say and then try to find the PG version, it’s just, like, a waste of everybody’s time. So yes. I worry that a parent is going to get mad. But I don’t know. I mean, I saw Pulp Fiction when I was 11, and I turned out okay. I think my followers can handle it — a couple f-bombs in tweets.

I’ve also heard people describe you as like the ultimate cool girl partially because of your Twitter presence. Do you like that people think you’re approachable or is it overwhelming?

Hell yeah! It’s the first time in my life people have thought I’m cool. I really wish that I had figured that out in high school.

You tweeted that you were jealous of your friend Aubrey Plaza being the voice of Grumpy Cat. If you could voice one character, a cartoon of whatever, who would it be?

Woah. Um. Oh my God I don’t know! Maybe Boba Fett? That would be a hell of a crossover movie.

WARNING: Lots of spoilers for both the musical and film versions of Into the Woods in here!!! Basically everything is revealed!!

ALSO WARNING: This is really, really, really long.

“But how can you know what you want til you get what you want and you see if you like it?”

Cinderella’s (cut) words ring true. I’ve been waiting over a decade for a film of Into the Woods. I first saw the filmed version of the original Broadway cast starring Bernadette Peters when I was twelve years old and I fell instantly in love. Even the very next day I could rattle off, “It’s your father’s fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place!” I’ve done papers on Into the Woods, I’ve done whole projects, binders worth of material, on Into the Woods. I wrote a screenplay for it once, I’ve cast and recast my dream version of a film, and I’m currently working on a series of costume designs for Into the Woods. Sadly I’ve never had the chance to perform in the show, though I hope to one day, but in the mean time there is no minute piece of Into the Woods trivia that you can give me that I can’t give back to you with five times more information.

I had the chance to read the screenplay adaptation for the official film a while ago, way before production started, maybe around the same time that we started getting initial cast announcements. Usually I avoid spoilers for movies (and television and books and any media of any kind) like the plague, but I knew that I needed to handle Into the Woods differently because it means so much to me. My expectations would be too high, I needed to go into it knowing what changes were going to be there, so I allowed myself to read it. I knew all of the musical cuts, I knew that Rapunzel was going to live, I knew that the Narrator was gone and that the Mysterious Man was almost completely gone as well. I even knew a lot of the little dialogue changes and additions and tweaks, like Jack’s slingshot and that On the Steps of the Palace would be rewritten and set in the present and that I Know Things Now would be done in flashback. I had hopes that some things would be rearranged to be a little more faithful to the musical (and, actually, some of them were) but I also was glad - and still am - that I allowed myself to know the changes in advance because otherwise, I think every little diversion would have bothered me. So I count myself lucky among the fans of the original musical that I got to experience the new movie in this way.

So the movie itself? I loved it.

I was grinning ear-to-ear during the prologue, and it wasn’t forced. I was so happy to see this show come to life on the screen. It’s not perfect. I have a lot of nitpicks and don’t worry, I’m going to share them. But I just have to tell you upfront that I loved this movie. I’ve seen it twice in theatres now and I’ll bet you anything I’m going to see it again next week. Overall, I am so happy with the outcome of the film.

Actors first, shall we? This movie belongs to Emily Blunt. She was fantastic. The Baker’s Wife is one of my favorite characters in any story, and I honestly was worried. How do you measure up to our other immortalized Baker’s Wife, the amazing Joanna Gleason? If a production messes up the Baker’s Wife (and/or the Baker), it’s pretty worthless. The Baker’s Wife is the role that is frequently nominated for awards - Tonys, Oliviers, etc. - and frequently won as well. And this Baker’s Wife was wonderful. She was cheeky and strong and vulnerable and excitable. The way she said, “You’ve got the cow!” was especially endearing to me… Her relationship with the Baker was rich and dynamic and fun and wonderful, and her interactions with Cinderella’s Prince were hilarious. I thought that a lot of her humor got swallowed by the film’s editing, but the performance was perfect. There was a lot of rumors before the movie’s premiere that “Moments in the Woods” had been cut, but I knew from the screenplay that that wasn’t true, and thank goodness for that because it was wonderful. Emily Blunt was the perfect film actress for this role, but you could have also plucked her right off the screen and dropped her on the stage and she would have been equally fantastic. I will watch this movie over and over again just for Emily Blunt as the Baker’s Wife.

Meryl Streep was great, especially as the ugly, Act I Witch. She made so many excellent character choices, exactly as I expected. Everything she did with her hands and eyes was so deliberate and so interesting, I can’t get enough of it. “Stay With Me” was so powerful and moving. But I didn’t care for her as the beautiful, Act II Witch. Even from her initial casting I knew this wouldn’t work. I feel like if you don’t come into the movie knowing about the transformation, then the movie’s version of the transformation would feel oddly anticlimactic. It helped that they revealed the “curse of ugliness” subplot from the start, along with the “the Witch can’t touch the objects” twist. Although I felt disappointed that these plot points were revealed so early, I think they were necessary or they would have been swallowed up later in the movie when they actually were meant to come to light. Meryl was very good. She was not the star that Emily Blunt was, but she did some good things with a great role.

There was a bit of a disconnect between the film actors and the stage actors. The blocking was awkward a couple times, and this was especially noticeable with James Corden as the Baker. He has a few times where he’s clearly turned at a three-quarter angle like you would onstage and sometimes he looks like he asked what he should do with his hands and someone said, “Just act natural, use your hands like normal hands!” and then he forgot what normal hands are supposed to do. But that being said, he was wonderful as the Baker, I couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role. I liked the emphasis on his worry about being a good father, his fear of repeating the actions of his own father, and his learning arch on how to become a father, shown through his interactions with Little Red, Jack, and even Cinderella. His work with Emily Blunt was so wonderful. “It Takes Two” is my favorite moment in the entire movie, I laughed with them and got chills a little bit and then teared up both times I’ve seen it so far because it’s just so… it’s so Into the Woods. It’s wonderful. I was worried that the elimination of “No More” was an indication of an oversight on the film creators’ behalf of my strong belief that the Baker is the protagonist of Into the Woods, but even if that’s the case, James Corden knew he was the lead and delivered.

The only actor on the screen that I blatantly didn’t like - and I didn’t like the idea of her playing this role even when she was first cast - was Anna Kendrick as Cinderella. Cinderella is the character I currently relate to most at this point in my life. James Lapine’s Cinderella is so wonderful. Her indecision is so relatable to me right now, her frustration and confusion simultaneously woven with her yearning for something more in life. But what I appreciate about it is that we are shown Cinderella being hesitant and doubtful and not told, and unfortunately the film kind of spells it all out for you. At one point, the narration literally says, “As for the indecisive Cinderella…” Anna Kendrick does a fine enough job in the first act, she feels a little out of place with everyone else, and her ball gown leaves something to be desired, but she’s certainly not actively bad. Her singing is beautiful, actually. But then we head into Act II and I don’t know what happens. Anna Kendrick is a wonderful person, bubbling over with personality, and every ounce of her charisma is drained from her in Act II. Her line delivery is so flat. She’s not funny; her one-liners go by unnoticed. She’s not motherly, as Cinderella should be in Act II. She’s not believable; her response to the birds’ reports of the Prince are nonexistant. She’s not… anything. She’s almost a non-entity. At some points, it sounds like she’s literally reading the lines off the page for the first time (see: “There are times I actually enjoy cleaning.”) I was trying not to build up my expectations for Anna’s Cinderella, and I was still let down.

I’m going to try to go a little more rapid-fire with the actors, because I could write a paragraph on each of them but this review is already going to be absolutely, ridiculously too long, so here we go. I feel like Billy Magnussen’s performance is one of the most underreported of the movie; in fact, I believe he outshown Chris Pine in “Agony.” I loved that he was clearly a little brother, and I loved his dynamic with Mackenzie Mauzy, who is absolutely gorgeous and perfect as Rapunzel. Why did Chris Pine sound and look so old? All I kept thinking was, “Is Chris Pine nearing forty?” (He’s not.) But “Agony” was so perfect that I don’t even care. Lilla Crawford was everything Little Red ought to be, and I bet she’d be even better if she could do it onstage (she had the theatre kid syndrom that James Corden had too). I loved Tracy Ullman and Daniel Huttlestone, they worked great both together and separately. I’ve always liked Jack to be played younger like this, but the movie actually showed me that Jack is better a little older because I felt so uncomfortable when the Baker started blaming him for the Wife’s death. And then there’s Christine Baranski, Tammy Blanchard, and Lucy Punch. I could gush (and have gushed to my friends) about them, I can’t believe more people aren’t going on about them, because they were so, so deliciously perfect. (It may or may not be worth noting that Christine Baranski is the only person I’ve ever cast as any role in any dreamcast who has later gone on to actually play that role.) I could write a lot on this trio, I really thought they knocked it out of the park, but I’ll try to continue on - but not without saying that Lucy Punch had me literally rolling in my seat when she came out with the slipper on.

And in the wise words of a friend of mine, “Johnny Depp and his costume had no business in this movie.” And that’s all I’ll say about that.

So regarding the changes from the original musical, while I understand them, I still think they made some mistakes. The biggest one is cutting “No More.” I get why it was cut. A lot of the lyrics are about riddles and so much of that becomes nonsense when you’ve eliminated the Mysterious Man from most of the story. But the Baker could have sung the last verse the same way the Witch sang the last verse of “The Witch’s Lament,” especially since they used almost the entire last verse as underscoring for James Corden’s crying scene, which means it would have fit in with the necessary timing of the movie. So I think that was just one big, glaring mistake. I also would have loved to have an actual narrator. In the second act, I would cut to him standing in front of a microphone in a recording studio, and have the characters literally pull him out of the studio and into the woods to feed him to the giant. But eliminating him makes sense and the way they worked around him was handled very well. Removing Rapunzel’s death was… I’d just like to know where that actually and truthfully came from. Was it really Disney saying, “You can’t kill one of our princesses”? Because the concept of Rapunzel being allowed to live didn’t bother me, but the way it messed with everything else around it did. The Witch is so weakened when Rapunzel gets to live. It kind of breaks down the character almost completely because I didn’t feel pity for her. Rapunzel was angry and had every right to be angry, and then she ran away and I felt like that ending left Rapunzel extremely justified. So I did not share in the Witch’s sorrow because it felt like Rapunzel deserved the happily ever after that she received. Allowing Rapunzel to live also forced the removal of the “Agony” reprise, which was such a loss. Those two men were so perfect in the first incarnation of the song, and the lyrics in the reprise are already so much funnier. I really feel like the audience was robbed of more Billy Magnussen and Chris Pine reprising, and I truly believe it would have topped the first one. It only would have added about five minutes to the film. We should’ve had it.

The cinemetography was absolutely gorgeous. The whole thing feels so grand, so big-scale. You get to know these characters as individuals, but also you can feel how what’s happening here on the screen is having an effect on the entire kingdom. The added lines about the villages all worked so nicely, and I loved the sweeping shots of the kingdom and the castle and the massive, massive woods. Filming in an actual forest absolutely paid off. The lighting was excellent, positively stunning, and very creatively used throughout the film. But I still have a lot of issues with the movie’s editing. The tempos on the songs were taken so slow. Especially with Cinderella, every time we cut to her everything was taken a little bit slower. And then we got to “Your Fault” and I nearly cried because it was so slow. And then to make up for it, they frequently sped through the dialogue to the point that they were ruining many of the jokes, mostly those from the Baker’s Wife and Little Red, which I found frustrating. And the cut off at the end of “No One is Alone” is so absolutely terrible, so utterly, unbelievably awful. It got the second biggest laugh of the film in my theatre (after “I was raised to be charming, not sincere”) and it made me so uncomfortable and angry.

I also hated the costumes. Rapunzel’s was nice and Jack’s Mother’s were fine, but other than that I found them really revolting. The Baker’s and Jack’s pants looked like they were from the 1970s. I didn’t like the choice to put the Baker’s Wife in red, although I did actually like her costume in the second act. Little Red’s cape design was weird and forced them into some awkward blocking when the Baker tried to steal it. The princes’ costumes were bland at best. The stepfamily had some nice wardrobe choices, but seeing them rush around in giant, swishing gowns of mauve and pink is so iconic, and I really missed that. Also, this isn’t a costume thing, but why isn’t Milky White actually white as milk? And why is she so big?? That cow isn’t dying at all!

But then there were a lot of other choices that I loved! I loved that we saw Jack’s Mother bowing to the stepfamily on their way to the festival, a nice nod to a choice Barbara Bryne made in the original production and a great way to start to weave together the characters as they head into the woods (this was actually even written into the screenplay, and I was excited about that). I laughed out loud when Jack dumped out the sack and the five giant gold pieces fell out. I loved the new orchestrations for “Agony” - I don’t use the word “epic” a lot, but that’s exactly the word I would use, they just felt bigger and… epic. But I loved that they retained the light note on “wife” at the end, that’s a tiny thing, but I hated it when the 2002 Broadway revival turned that into a big final note. I liked the choice for Jack to lie down in the tree toward the end of “Giants in the Sky” (although I felt like it was later undone when Cinderella did the same thing during “On the Steps of the Palace”). The bridge between Act I and Act II was also done really, really well, it was an excellent rewrite. I can’t believe no one’s talking about this, actually. No one really misses the Act II Prologue, but I don’t think James Lapine is getting the credit he deserves for such a brilliant adaptation. Jack’s Mother’s death was so odd, though. In the screenplay, it plays out exactly as we saw it on screen, but it’s clear that she lives. Then later, someone finds her hat in the middle of the woods, which is how the Baker knows to tell Jack later that she died. In the movie, I even knew she was supposed to die there, and I didn’t think she had died. I watched closely for it the second time around, and it’s definitely unclear that she’s been killed.

I also loved the action sequence where they took down the giant at the end, I’m glad they showed all of that and we didn’t just watch Little Red and Cinderella react like we do in the show - because the lines that are actually written there are so awful and if you don’t drown them out with the sounds of the battle you can ruin the whole production. I liked this fix, I liked that we got to see the giant come down. But I didn’t like that we cut the forming of the plan, especially because the new plan truly involved them all. The birds simply will “do their part”? Planning to peck out the giant’s eyes are a specific reference to them pecking out the stepsisters’ eyes in the first act. Choosing to smear the ground with pitch is also a reference to Cinderella’s adventures in the first act, and it wasn’t until my friend explained it to me later that I realized that the tar pit the giant got stuck in was actually the leftovers from the Witch’s exit at the end of “Last Midnight.” And now we’re using Jack’s slings using Red’s wolf cloak, and the dialogue is written, there’s no reason to skip it. It felt like they were just too eager to get to the scene between Cinderella and the Prince so we pushed through that part.

I also thought it was interesting that we brought in not one but two Biblical references - Jack and his slingshot taking down the giant are a clear allusion to David and Goliath, and then the screenplay explicitely describes the “I Know Things Now” flashbacks as being similar to depictions of Jonah and the Whale. But then, that brings up another issue. For me, “I Know Things Now,” “Giants in the Sky,” and “On the Steps of the Palace” are a set, a trio of songs. They are the respective realizations for Little Red, Jack, and Cinderella, who are the central characters of three of the main fairy tales and will be three of the final four to live through the whole show. So if we’re going to show “I Know Things Now” in flashback and we’re going to show “Giants in the Sky” in flashback, then there’s absolutely no reason to rewrite “On the Steps of the Palace” and put it in the present. It just felt like an unnecessary change to me.

All right, so I think I’ve gone on long enough, and I think I’ve said everything I wanted to say. It’s not perfect, it has many flaws, I would have done many things differently, and as always the original musical production is still the best version of this story. But the things that were important to me were all there. And at the end of the day, this is just another production and there will always be more. I can’t wait to see how the movie affects further stage productions. I bet we especially see changes in future performance of “Agony.”

This is your first time at Comic-Con. What do you think of all the cosplay?

MELISSA: I actually think the costumes and the dressing up is really cool. I was a kid who would dress up for showings at movie theaters. I was Hermione a couple times for Harry Potter. I dressed up for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Star Wars—when Revenge of the Sith came out I wore an Obi Wan hood.

A lot of people, especially here at Comic-Con, have been waiting for a female superhero to return to the screen for a long time. Do you feel that pressure?

I think that comic book movies are at this place now that they’re so humongous. I think of Iron Man as the movie that kind of started this whole thing, and it’s just been too long: We’ve had some female characters who are badasses, but I think it’s just time for a female-centered heroic story.

Of course I feel pressure because of that. It feels big. I’m accountable for the message we’re trying to spread and what Supergirl does—whether she defeats a bad guy, how she defeats him, how she deals with her problems. But I think there’s this climate now where women are really speaking up and women aren’t afraid anymore. I know that this is not Gloria Steinem, but I think it’s important.

You mention Gloria Steinem. When you walk onto set and want to channel a powerful woman, who do you think about?

Her! Totally. And Susan Sontag, I’ve read a lot of her books. I love her. Anais Nin. In terms of women on television and in movies: Everyone says Meryl Streep but there’s a reason. She’s so strong and confident and independent. I grew up loving Judy Garland and Rosemary Clooney and just wanting to be the woman that affected people and made them feel something, made them feel more powerful.

You want to portray this empowered character, but when theSupergirl trailer first came out, a lot of people criticized it. They compared it to the SNL Black Widow rom-com spoof.

I expected that. I kind of knew when that skit came out, I was like, “Oh gosh. That looks familiar.” What I think is different is our show is a discovery. She’s never used her powers before. Black Widow was trained to be an assassin so putting her in that position she was in in the skit is ridiculous. But with Supergirl, we have room to grow. She doesn’t know how to be that badass quite yet. She’s learning how to be a woman.

Whenever you play a superhero you’re bound to be picked apart. Did you seek out any advice from your Whiplash co-star Miles Teller who is playing Mr. Fantastic in Fantastic Four this summer?

At the time I hadn’t booked Supergirl yet. But he had done Divergent, and he did talk to me about how difficult it was to act in front of a green screen and just like the sheer magnitude of how much money goes into these things and the special effects and how that creates a lot of pressure and how it will affect you.

So how is your first time in front of a green screen?

It’s flexing different acting muscles. I was raised in a musical theater sphere of this business, and playing a superhero in front of a green screen is a beast compared to that. You have to keep a grounded humanity even though you don’t have anything around you and you’re saying these one-liners. Finding the humanity to that is important to me, but it’s very difficult.

How do you manage that?

I try to imagine—say there’s a situation where they’re having me fly, and something is really dire and I have to go save someone and fight someone. I’m flying as if someone is mugging my mom, and I’m going to save her. I don’t know, you just have to root it in real situations.

But a musical theater background must help with that somewhat. In reality, not everyone sings everything that they feel.

True. Though I felt more normal doing that.

Are you a singing in the shower type person?

Oh, totally. Maybe it’s because I break out into song into my day-to-day life.

Do you walk onto the Supergirl set and just start singing?

All the time. There was one day where all I could think about when I was up in the wire flying was, “I got the power.” I couldn’t keep that inside. I have, like, musical Tourette’s.

They showed a preview of the pilot here. What has it been like watching yourself transform into a superhero on screen?

I usually don’t like to watch myself. I’m very critical. I don’t like looking at my face, and I’ll judge the tiniest twitch in my face. In this show, it’s different because when I’m in a suit, I don’t recognize myself. In the action fight scenes I don’t see Melissa, I don’t see her. I guess it’s easier to watch this.

What does your family think of you being Supergirl?

I think all of us think it’s funny. My mom was on set one day with my little sister, and we were up in the desert. There was fire everywhere. I was dirty and punching people. And I sat down next to my mom on a break, and she looked at me and laughed. She said, “I just never, ever pictured you doing something like this.”

If you came from this musical theater background and never pictured yourself doing action, what do you think it was about your audition that got you cast?

I’ve said this before, but it really rang true to me when it happened, [executive producer] Greg Berlanti said to me in one of my auditions, “You’re like the Annie Hall of superheroes.” I automatically felt that awkwardness and [how] weird she is. She’s just not figured herself out. She’s not comfortable in her own skin yet. I’m going through that as a woman myself. I’m 27, but I still feel like I have so much to learn about being a woman and having confidence and really using my strength and my femininity. Maybe it’s just the right place and the right time, but I’m glad it’s happening.

Is there anything that the character has taught you about being a woman?

Totally. Not to take any crap. I take no sh-t off of nobody. I’m a person that is really afraid of confrontation. I always have been. That’s slowly but surely fading in a way that’s graceful. I try to confront with grace and strength. I think part of it is when you see a lot of powerful women in movies and TV, they come across as b-tches or snarky or someone you don’t want to be friends with. I think a lot of what playing Kara has taught me is really doing it with positivity and hope and being a good influence.

People assume if a woman is powerful, she’s going to walk all over you or stab you in the back or something. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Chris gazes at him, forgets words. Feels thickheaded and clumsy and inadequate: sleep-fuzzy, baffled, bleary-eyed with the aftermath of the night before. Awakening, he’d needed a minute to recall why he’d been naked, what he’d done last night, and oh God who; and his heart had performed an odd unhappy quiver at the realization that Sebastian’d gotten out of bed and left without saying goodbye.

A/N: This story came from an anonymous prompt that Ren received and she said that I could take. Also, the first line is Ren’s as well, I just borrowed it.

The first time they meet, Harry’s got her tits out and Louis inhales hairspray. The events might be related.

“You must be Louis!” the assistant who has her hands on Harry’s boobs exclaims with a happy smile. Louis figures if she had her hands on a model’s tits, she’d be smiling too.

However, Louis is too busy choking on hairspray to give a proper response and barely registers a glass of water being pushed into her hand by a woman with lilac coloured hair, the one that had copped Louis in the mouth with the spray. She isn’t sure that the best course of action would be swallowing down more hairspray via drinking but whatever. She takes a gulp of the water and promptly makes a face as she swallows.

“Fuck, that’s nasty,” Louis mutters as she wipes out her mouth with her hand. She looks around for something to wipe her hand on and ends up wiping it on the outer thigh of her jeans. That’ll teach her to open her mouth when she walks into a dressing room where there’s a super model being primped up.

She has been in the mix with criminals for a good few years now, and after recently celebrating their 200th episode, “Criminal Minds” actress A.J. Cook takes the infamous 60 second rundown for Within Magazine. Read the interview below.

Describe yourself in 3 words.

Respectful, Protective and Unconditional.

How did you get into acting?

I started dance when I was 4 and I grew up in a house that encouraged creativity. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been choreographing dance routines or making up plays. Toward the end of highschool, I sort of just made a natural transition into acting. My very first agent worked out of my dance studio. It was a tiny little agency, but I got work. I was very lucky. I haven’t looked back since.

What was the last film you saw that moved you?

American Hustle really did a number on me mainly because of Jennifer Lawrence. She’s a beast. There’s nothing she can’t do. She played that character to perfection. The whole cast was incredible. I love characters that are extremely flawed. They’re my favorite to play and after watching this movie, it lit the acting flame inside of me. David O. Russel is my dream director. No one tells a story quite like him.

If you could play any character, past or present?

I loved the 1996 film Marvin’s Room which was based on the 1990 play by Scott McPherson. It’s filled with wonderfully dysfunctional and flawed characters. I did a piece from this play back in collage and I was the role of Lee. In the movie Lee is played by the brilliant Meryl Streep.

If you weren’t an actress, what career would you have?

I probably would have opened a tiny dance studio somewhere.

Who do you look up to?

My parents are amazing people. They’re still married and they are best friends. It’s adorable. My father is the calm in the middle of the storm. He has such a quiet strength about him that has always impressed me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak ill of anyone my entire life. They have both been a beautiful example to myself and my siblings.

Favourite childhood memory?

Every summer I would go camping with my Grandparents. They would take all of my siblings and cousins to the lake. Everyday we would fish and ride bikes and hike and every night all the kids would do some kind of production. Whether it be a dance routine, lip syncing to Whitney Houston or doing some horrible play we made up. My grandparents always made us feel like we were stars.

What do you look for in a man?

A good heart and a sense of humor. I’ve witness my hubby on several occasions take the shoes off of his feet and give them to a perfect stranger on the street. He has a heart of gold. He also has a wicked sense of humor. He’s definitely not a saint!

Perfect first date?

I think it’s important to do something physical on a first date. Like going on a hike or a stroll/jog along the beach. That way you can see how the other person moves. I think it’s a little more exciting than sitting at a table eating dinner.

Worst chat up line you have heard?

You spend a lot of time in your car in L.A. I was driving on the freeway and I noticed that the guy in the car next to me had written a note that he was holding up for me to see. It said “You’re hot. Call me”. His phone number was scribbled on it. I almost called him just so I could find out if that ever actually worked for him!

Today is your last day on Earth, how would you spend it?

I would spend it on the beach with my beautiful husband and son.

Do you have any bad habits?

I drive too fast. I spend way too much time driving. It makes me crazy. I just want to get there as fast as possible. I have to really make an effort to slow down. One day I challenged myself to not drive over the speed limit. I have never been flipped off so many times in my life. I actually turned it into a game! Everyone drives over the speed limit here.

Now you’re living in the US, what do you miss about your birthplace, Canada?

I miss my family and friends the most. Canada has really good junk food, too. Chocolate bars and chips. They have dill pickle and ketchup flavored chips. It sounds gross, but it’s so good. I also miss the Canadian kindness. Everyone is just so genuine.

You danced competitively for many years, would you ever take up a role on strictly come dancing?

I think it’s unfair when someone with a dance background is on the show. The whole point of the show is to see someone improve over a short period of time. That’s what I love about it. You should be able to tell who is the professional and who is the celebrity. I’m no where near the professional level, but I do have that dance background.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope to be like a fine wine and just get better with age. Men do it. Why can’t women? I feel like I’m just getting started. I hope to still be doing what I love, but on an even deeper level. I want to create and produce. I hope to have a few of my passion projects on the go for the world to see.

Finally, Criminal Minds has made a great impact here in the UK. Is there anything you would like to say to your fans across the pond?

Thank you so much for your passion! I am the first to admit that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. We love making Criminal Minds and I hope that shows through in our chemistry on screen. Thank you for embracing our little BAU family. Here’s to season 10 and beyond!